The Times Group Corporate Initiative Response IntelliQuote Digital Transformation of Print Media Sales Raman Agarwal, Strategy and Pricing 30th January 2019 Acknowledgements Project Sponsor Concept & Design Tableau Integration IT Implementation Sivakumar Sundaram Raman Agarwal Rakesh Baboota Paresh Thakur Devanshu Verma Vikrant Desai System Architecture Analytics Vivek Kumar Sachin Kale Raman Agarwal Raman Agarwal Adarsh Saikia Rajesh Rebello Prashant Dogra Neeraj Chhabra Rahul Jha Paresh Thakur Yuvraj Relan Nitendra Singh Vikrant Desai Sunit Chandan Lalit Anand Siddharth Dubey Babusha Sharma Consultations Nitesh Kumar Rajat Srivastava Subramanian S Kriti Taneja Deepa Bharti Parag Bhangle Amit Kumar 1 Reference and Inspirations # Topics Source 1 Pricing Guidance in Ad Sale Negotiations Paper by Google India 2 Comparison of Accuracy of Statistical Models Paper by Dr. Hirotogu Akaike 3 Revenue Management and Dynamic Pricing Lectures of Prof. Goutam Dutta, IIM Ahmedabad 4 Advertising Industry and Trends KPMG Report 2018 5 Implementing dashboards in Tableau YouTube and online forums 6 Negotiation Theory Wikipedia links on ZOPA and BATNA 2 Foreword / Executive Summary Bennett Coleman & Company Limited (BCCL) conceptualised, developed and architected a dynamic pricing application – IntelliQuote - which predicts client specific prices in real time for a print inventory. The algorithm is designed in such a manner that it triangulates prices from two different logics and once a sale is made the machine learns the propensity of the advertiser to pay for the subsequent transaction. The state-of-the-art design is first of its kind in the industry and works with an accuracy of 75%, i.e. majority of its predicted prices have potential to turn into orders. Apart from predicting the “right price”, the application increases speed of business; monitors negotiation efficiency of the sales team; aids in preventing price-arbitrage; and provides Tableau exportable reports for further R&D and trend analysis. The application is accessible through a Mobile App or Desktop and is used by over 1500 sales personnel with over 1 Lakh transactions till date, leading to a digital transformation of the sales team and enabling them with quote and floor prices on the go. The robustness of the analytical engine behind the application is audited and certified by two consulting firms independently. 3 Table of Content Situation, Complication, Solution 1 The problem at hand?; Plan to address it Significant Achievements 2 Increase Yield, Revenue; Digital Transformation IntelliQuote – Under-the-hood 3 Universe of variables; Broad Algorithm; Decision Support System Appendix 4 Project Timelines; Application Screenshots Table of Content Situation, Complication, Solution 1 The problem at hand?; Plan to address it Significant Achievements 2 Increase Yield, Revenue; Digital Transformation IntelliQuote – Under-the-hood 3 Universe of variables; Broad Algorithm; Decision Support System Appendix 4 Project Timelines; Application Screenshots Situation: The legacy pricing and revenue management system relied on ad-hoc decisions substituted for business intelligence Elements of a Dynamic Pricing System Analytics Decision Support System Real-Time Trend Transparent Sales Data Cogent Pricing Analysis (MIS) Models Negotiation Set Pricing Market Prices Strategy Data Real-Time Analysis Calibration Competitive Market Advantage Intelligence or VOC Business Strategy + Sales Targets Existing Partially Existing Missing 6 Complication: The pricing model, negotiation process and route to market had critical drawbacks Inaccurate Slower Absence Model with Speed of of a Live Issue obnoxiously Issue Business Issue Decision high rates Support 01 03 05 System Price Inconsistency Issue Lack of Transparency Generic and Issue Archaic MIS for unpalatable 02 business intelligence, rates from an 04 often unavailable for Sales team not outdated system Pricing decisions enabled to take Manual transactions on-the-spot depending on the acumen of Pricing decisions No tracking of a human - Pricing Scientist negotiation efficiency; Risk of team’s churn 7 Solution: A new eco-system is designed with a vision to increase Yield, Drive Productivity and Empower People Project Intersect A confluence of sales and pricing Mobile Application – IntelliQuote (iQ) Pricing Team Decision Accuracy Sales Team Transparency Support Support System Consistency and Speed Speed of Business Change ManagementChange Standard Multipliers Auto Approvals Tracking Discounts Automated & Revised ORs Dashboards Pre-filled Forms Re-visit Triangulate Forecast Regression & Analytics Statistics / Math Rev, Yield, MS Simpler Navigation De-risk Sales Churn Alternate Models Improved UI Integration with CRM Occupancy Third Party Audit Auto Rate Grids Buying Pattern WIP Completed 8 Table of Content Situation, Complication, Solution 1 The problem at hand?; Plan to address it Significant Achievements 2 Increase Yield, Revenue; Digital Transformation IntelliQuote – Under-the-hood 3 Universe of variables; Broad Algorithm; Decision Support System Appendix 4 Project Timelines; Application Screenshots IntelliQuote is able to increase the Yield by 5%, with an estimated annual revenue benefit of USD 10mn 4.1% Percentage Premium Achieved Over Usual Yield 100% 3.4% 20% 90% 80% G1 G2 70% Area under the curve represents G1 = Average Print Market Growth* incremental revenue 60% (FY 2017 to FY 2018) 50% G2 = Weighted Average Yield Increase (Transactions through IntelliQuote) 40% % premium charged per transaction transaction per charged premium % 30% Revenue Impact** = ~USD 10 mn 20% (Annual impact if volume is same and full adoption by the sales team) 10% 0% *KPMG India Study 2018 Number of Transactions ** Check appendix for scenario analysis 10 Much more than an App, the IntelliQuote is a digital transformation of the sales team Request for Quote Machine Rates 1 2 Sales Pricing Team Auto Emails with Quotes Rates curated by SPOCs 4 Near Real-time Model Improvement 5 3 IT For Regional and National Heads For President’s Office / Directors . No-offline rate to be maintained . Negotiation efficiency of Sales & Pricing Team by Markets, Verticals . De-risk team’s churn 6 . Analytics to roll-out potential Spot Offers (Wish vs Closure) . Triangulation of Forecast Trends Automated Reports 11 In contrast to the legacy system, the IntelliQuote prices are well within the reach for sales to pick business From To 12 IntelliQuote shifts the computation load to a machine thereby facilitating richer engagements between the Pricing and the Sales teams Manual recursive Pricing Supervised Machine Automated Pricing Learning Archaic way of working Provides opportunity to control rates Idealistic Subject to errors Best of both worlds Need supreme accuracy 1 2 3 13 IntelliQuote fortifies the competitive edge of the Times Group by delivering productivity and sales empowerment Strategic priorities defined by the leadership to grow Print business in India to be carried till 2020 14 Table of Content Situation, Complication, Solution 1 The problem at hand?; Plan to address it Significant Achievements 2 Increase Yield, Revenue; Digital Transformation IntelliQuote – Under-the-hood 3 Universe of variables; Broad Algorithm; Decision Support System Appendix 4 Project Timelines; Application Screenshots The legacy system used limited variables for pricing; The rest were considered for ad-hoc decisions Market Share Share of Wallet Consumption Pattern Opportunity Cost Client Growth Rate Paper Quality Edition Month Industry Growth Rate Innovation Color / B&W Page Position Special Day/Event Premium Circulation / 1 Occupancy 2 3 Ad Size Print Order Deal-Size Launch vs Frequency Affinity to Print Importance for Brand No. of insertions Costs Existing vs New Client Non-Print Bundles Competition Rates Industry Sector Entry Barrier vs Defend Traditional Variables Potential Alliance 1 Agency Relationship 2 Variables used in IntelliQuote Government Regulations 3 Contextual Variables 16 IntelliQuote expanded the purview - relevant variables are programmed; Dashboards built for significant ones Significant variables for which Share of Wallet Market Share dashboards were made Consumption Pattern Opportunity Cost Client Growth Rate Paper Quality Edition Month Industry Growth Rate Innovation Color / B&W Page Position Special Day/Event Premium Circulation / Occupancy 2 3 Ad Size Print Order Deal-Size Launch vs Frequency Affinity to Print Importance for Brand No. of insertions Costs Existing vs New Client Non-Print Bundles Competition Rates Industry Sector Entry Barrier vs Defend Traditional Variables Potential Alliance 1 Agency Relationship 2 Variables used in IntelliQuote Government Regulations 3 Contextual Variables 17 IntelliQuote’s analytical engine predicts client level prices with >75% accuracy Accuracy is defined as predicted prices are about 30% premium on usual yield for the combination Data, Design and Results audited by two consulting firms 18 IntelliQuote exhibits stronger prediction of rates than ever before; Coaxing higher adoption by the sales team Resolves Issue 1 Source: BW / SAP 19 IntelliQuote automates 66% of the incoming enquiries; increases productivity and speed of business Resolves Card Rate Issue 2 & 3 10k RFQs Auto Approvals A Price from Legacy System Automation 15k RFQs Approvals by Sales Heads B achieved through the accuracy of IntelliQuote Price price prediction 51% or 28k RFQs Repeat Orders C by IntelliQuote Operating Yield 55k RFQs 70k RFQs 70k 85% of Revenue of85% 49% or 27k RFQs Manually